DALEVILLE, Ind. (WOWO) — Historic flooding has left a Daleville farm facing thousands of dollars in losses, with much of its pumpkin crop destroyed and other crops severely damaged just weeks before the fall harvest season.

Landess Farm owner Jesse Landess surveyed the damage Thursday, finding portions of his property still covered by mud and standing water following last week’s flooding.

The farm’s pumpkin patch took one of the biggest hits.

“The pumpkin patch is basically gone because it just couldn’t take 15,16 inches of water,” Landess told Fox 59.

The damage comes at a particularly difficult time for the farm, which is preparing for its annual fall celebrations. Many of the pumpkin plants were left with yellow, limp leaves after sitting in floodwater.

Some young pumpkins and blossoms were still visible, but Landess said it is too early to know whether those plants will survive.

The flooding also devastated portions of the farm’s tomato crop.

Landess grows tomatoes in three aboveground tunnels designed to protect the plants from heavy rain. But the amount of water that moved onto the property overwhelmed those protections, leaving many of the young plants submerged.

“Two days ago they were all nice, green and full, and now they’re dead,” Landess said while standing inside one of the tunnels.

Landess estimates the flooding will cost the farm between $5,000 and $8,000 in revenue.

To continue meeting customer demand, he said the farm will have to purchase or outsource some crops, including pumpkins and melons, that it otherwise would have grown itself.

The consequences could extend beyond this year’s harvest.

Landess said he has been preparing to plant about 7,500 strawberry plants for next year. Those plants are currently sitting in boxes because the ground remains too saturated to get them into the soil.

“We are trying to plant some strawberries for next year,” Landess said. “We have 7500 plants that are sitting in boxes that we can’t plant because it’s so wet.”

The farm’s sweet corn and soybeans appear to have held up better so far, but Landess said he won’t know the full extent of the damage until conditions improve and the crops continue developing.

Dan Quinn, an assistant professor of agronomy at Purdue University, said the long-term effects of flooding may become clearer as Indiana farmers approach harvest.

Flooded fields can present problems beyond the immediate loss of plants. Excess moisture can contribute to crop deterioration, rot and disease, potentially reducing both yield and quality.

Quinn said some farmers could consider harvesting flooded fields earlier than they normally would.

“(Farmers) may have to prioritize flooded fields just to get the grain out of the field because the health and the quality of these crops deteriorate in some of these flooded areas,” Quinn said. He added that conditions can become significantly worse the longer crops remain in flooded ground.

For Landess, the damage is a serious setback, but it is not enough to make him give up on farming.

The farm has been in his family for nearly a century, and he said the family has never faced flooding on this scale.

Despite the losses, Landess is already looking toward next season and the possibility of rebuilding what was lost.

“Farming is a faith venture,” Landess said. “You put the seed in the ground; there’s nothing more you can do… and you have to have faith that you’ll be taken care of by a higher power. That’s what we believe here.”

For now, Landess Farm is left waiting for the water to recede and the ground to dry enough to determine what can still be harvested, what will have to be replaced and how much of next year’s planting can move forward.